NORTH SHORE WATER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 6

NORTH SHORE WATER.

BOARD'S DISAGREEMENT. LIGNITE STREAM PROJECT. The solution of the problem of a water supply oil the North Shore was considered by the North Shore Water Board yesterday, when a report oil the Lignite Stream, Birkenhead, us a source of supply was presented by Mr. R. P. Worley, consulting engineer. The suggestion was made in the report that an auxiliary supply should he obtained by the four marine boroughs, from that source. ' After discussion 011 the report, Mr. R. Martin, Mayor of Northeote, moved that the board request the x-üblic Works Department to investigate, in conjunction with the Health Department, the Lignite Stream project, to consider its use as an auxiliary supply. Mr. G. Mills, Mayor of Birkenhead, seconded, but tlie motion was lost. It was filially decided to ask the water committee of the City Council to confer with the board regarding a supply from the city reservoirs to the North Shore. . .Several aspects of the proposal were discussed. A price for water from the city had already been given to the board, liad been considered too high, and was again under consideration. It was thought that the board might take water from the city filters or from a Waitttkere dam, arid bear the cost of supply itself.

The Report Detailed. In his report Mr. Worley said lie agreed that it was an unsound policy to maintain- Die North Shore water supply by drawing 011 tile reserve of iwater in Lake Pupuke, and that the position of the boroughs would be critical until that supply was augmented'. The lake was too valuable a source to lie discarded, and it should be retained as a permanent part of the supply for the North Shore. The development of the Lignite Stream as ail additional supply offered the simplest and cheapest solution.

-The estimated cost of the proposed scheme, to deliver 250,000,000 gallons a year, was £55,940, including £28,400 for dam and pumping station, £10.000 for reservoir and filter plant, and £9000 for catchment area. The total annual cost for 250,000,000 gallons was £5800, equivalent tn 5.57 d per 1000 gallons. "In recommending this scheme to the board," said Mr. Worley, "I would emphasise the following points: (1) The cost of the water is less than half the cost of water from any other supplementary course; (2) the capital cost involved is, comparatively speaking, small, and can be repaid by afforesting the catchment area; (3) if undertaken, it will tide the district over until the growth of population makes a major supply from the Waitakeres or the Waikato feasible; (4) it will enable Lake Pupuke to recover its lost level and its lost purity very rapidly; (5) the district will then have a perennial supply of 450,000,000 gallons of very chcap water from the two sources, both of which could form an integral part of the water supply system of the future."